Sales are the time of year when the greatest number of purchases are concentrated over the Internet and with this the ingenuity of cybercriminals is sharpened to commit their scams, knowing that many people resort to these practices for the first time and may be scapegoats for their ignorance of the risk involved in transactions in online stores.
This has been warned, in statements to EFE, by the Cybersecurity Helpline technician of the National Cybersecurity Institute (Incibe), Ángela García Valdés, who has specified that cybercriminals are adapting to the times and generally in times of sales tend to focus their scams on online stores with offers that are ultimately fraudulent.
García Valdés has indicated that there is no data on how much cyber-scams grow during sales times, although he has stressed that
"it is clear that the increase is very significant", and has stressed that in these periods the Incibe receives more inquiries about this type of crime through various channels
: 017, the form available on the entity's website and through chats via WhatsApp or Telegram
In addition, it has warned that anyone who has been the victim of an attack of this nature has provided their bank details to cybercriminals, for which reason it has insisted on the need to always report this type of action to the security forces and notify your entity what happened to prevent fraudulent use of your card.
"The most normal thing is that the bank cancels the card from which the purchase was made, which turned out to be a cyber-scam to prevent cybercriminals from making more charges and prolonging the scam," he pointed out.
Likewise, he has continued, all evidence of fraud must be collected and a complaint filed with the security forces.
"Depending on the agreements that each user has with their bank, with this complaint there are some possibilities of recovering the lost money, which generally depends on the time elapsed since the victim realizes that they have been scammed," the person in charge clarified. of the Incibe.
Guidelines to avoid scams
The Incibe technician has indicated that several "more or less technical" recommendations can be followed to avoid being the victim of an online scam, but has stressed that "nothing better than applying common sense and avoiding offers that offer branded products at a very low price." below the market price".
"When they offer us products at incredible prices, it is most likely that we are dealing with fraud," García Valdés reiterated.
Among the "technical" recommendations that must be followed "when investigating a web page", he highlighted those that
have HTTPS (Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol) at the address
, which, in principle, indicates that it is a secure communication that will be encrypted, and also that they have trust seals.
He added that until a few years ago these two indicators guaranteed the legality of the page, but "now cybercriminals, in their continuous reinvention, are adapting to the times and currently fraudulent online stores have been detected that have them" .
Other guidelines to follow are to check that the URL corresponds to the original brand and that the name has not been modified, that
the page has a legal notice informing about the rights of users and return issues as well as owner data such as the C.I.F.
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He has warned that a very common characteristic of fraudulent online stores is that they usually put all the products at the same price, as well as that the texts incur in incorrect language even with misspellings and whose images are of very low quality.
Finally, he has invited to consult the opinions of other users as long as they are outside the web page in question.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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